Barclays has hired Graham Wayne, KCG Europe’s former European head of electronic trading, in a new electronic product role, The TRADE understands.
The appointment of Wayne is a significant boost the British-based bank, after it lost its former global head of electronic equities, Joe Mecane, to Citadel Securities in June.
According to a source with knowledge of the matter, Wayne will report into Nej D’jelal, head of Barclays electronic equities product team and a co-chair of Plato Partnership.
Barclays European electronic equities team is co-headed by D’jelal and Eric Krueger, who also serves as EMEA head of cash execution sales.
In May KCG announced a 12% reduction plan to its workforce in a 8-K filing to the SEC, of which Wayne was a part of the overall reduction, The TRADE has learned.
Wayne served as head of KCG Europe’s EU electronic trading business from 2014. He was also head of product for the European execution services team at Knight Capital, prior to its merger with Getco to create KCG in 2013.
Barclays has seen a number of its senior equities members depart to rival banks, including Mike Di Iorio, its former global head of equity sales, to Credit Suisse in May.
In the first quarter of the year, Barclays reported a drop in equities trading revenue of 10% to £462 million.
Banks have recently made huge investments into their European electronic trading teams, with the likes of JP Morgan, Citi, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale making a number of hirings to boost the business.